The U.S. administration on Friday extended sanctions on Syria. President Barack Obama signed an executive order renewing the five-year-old measure for another year, the State Department said Friday. The sanctions include ban on exporting certain US goods to Syria and freeze of assets of a number of top Syrian individuals.

"The national emergency with respect to Syria remains in effect," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, according to the AP. "We continue to have serious concerns about Syria's actions…. We need to see concrete steps from the Syrian government to move in another direction," he said.